"At the State Department [3]'s invitation," former Voice of America [4] director and current dean of the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication Geoffrey Cowan wrote an opinion piece for USA Today praising Karen Hughes [5], the new U.S. public diplomacy head [6]. Hughes "knows that we have to change our tone so that we sound less arrogant," Cowan wrote. "Importantly," during her recent Middle East "listening tour," [7] Hughes was "accompanied ... by Dina Powell [8], her new deputy, who was born in Egypt and speaks fluent Arabic." Noting Cowan's "third-party endorsement [9]" of Hughes, O'Dwyer's PR Daily reported that [10], while USA Today did disclose the State Department's role in the opinion piece, the newspaper didn't mention that "Cowan received a briefing from Hughes when she visited the campus on Sept. 21."